Elizabeth Olsen Interview For Martha Marcy May Marlene

Elizabeth Olsen, younger sibling to twins Mary-Kate and Ashley, stars in this week's release of Martha Marcy May Marlene, a psychological drama about a young woman who gets caught up in a cult-like atmosphere. It's a breakout role for Olsen, who has a challenging job as the complicated title character. I had a chance to ask Olsen if she researched cults or spoke to victims of them for the film, and Olsen said she hadn't, and was pleased that she didn't.

She explained, "I definitely might have done research if there was more time, but within two to three weeks before shooting, I was cast, and all I had was the script. I'm actually lucky there wasn't more time, because then I would probably have psyched myself out. I'd do all this research, and then I might feel this sort of reverence to something, this idea to depict something really important and I'd just rather approach it from a really human perspective of what could happen to the everyman. I just dealt with how I could relate to her situation."